resolved Still seems to be a bug in Orbx Central and the scenery.ini

MarkG · May 3, 2020

Hi,

Sorry to spring back again with the same problem, but this time I have some definitive evidence that it's Orbx central causing the issue.

I started a thread recently which was resolved by me manually reordering the scenery.ini and not really know how it changed in the first place.

Well now I have found out why. It is Orbx Central re-ordering the scenery.ini incorrectly. I can make it happen by verifying the Orbx base pack, but basically anything I install from Orbx central triggers it. This is with Prepar3D V5.

For some reason, Orbx central is taking it upon itself to look at what is already in the add-ons folder, adjust their layer numbers, and then continuing to adjust the layer numbers of everything in the scenery.ini as well, causing everything to go out of sequence as per my original post and breaking any other scenery add-on installed after it.

For clarity, the problem is:

When UK2000 for example, installs add-on scenery, it uses the add-on.xml method and gives every airport a layer number of 950 so they're at the top and out the way.

Example one

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
  <AddOn.Name>UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme</AddOn.Name>
  <AddOn.Description>UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme scenery</AddOn.Description>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>d:\Users\Mark\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons\UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme</Path>
    <Name>UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme</Name>
    <Layer>950</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

Example Two

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
  <AddOn.Name>UK2000 Exeter Xtreme</AddOn.Name>
  <AddOn.Description>UK2000 Exeter Xtreme scenery</AddOn.Description>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>d:\Users\Mark\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons\UK2000 Exeter Xtreme</Path>
    <Name>UK2000 Exeter Xtreme</Name>
    <Layer>950</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

This then leaves them out of the scenery.ini (the old fashioned way) and they've no need to be accounted for.

Therefore, the scenery.ini looks like this: (the area numbers match the layer numbers. An assumption made by most add-ons that are installed and set their own Area/layer numbers to match each other.

[General]
Title=Prepar3D Scenery
Description=Prepar3D Scenery Areas Data
Clean_on_Exit=TRUE

[Area.001]
Title=Default Terrain
Local=Scenery\World
Active=TRUE
Required=TRUE
Layer=1

[Area.002]
Title=Default Scenery
Local=Scenery\BASE
Active=TRUE
Required=TRUE
Layer=2

[Area.003]
Title=0000 Base
Local=Scenery\0000
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=3

[Area.004]
Title=0001 Base
Local=Scenery\0001
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=4

truncated for brevity.........
..
..

[Area.159]
Title=FTX_EU_ENG_07_MESH
Local=Orbx\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_ENG_07_MESH
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=159

[Area.160]
Title=FTX_EU_ENG_06_CVX
Local=Orbx\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_ENG_06_CVX
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=160

[Area.161]
Title=FTX_EU_ENG_05_SCENERY
Local=Orbx\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_ENG_05_SCENERY
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=161

[Area.162]
Title=FTX_AA_LOWI
Local=Orbx\FTX_EU\FTX_AA_LOWI
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=162

[Area.163]
Title=FTXAA_ORBXLIBS
Local=Orbx\FTX_AU\FTXAA_ORBXLIBS
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=163

After an Orbx central installation or file verification, it goes through and edits all of the add-on.xml's for everything like this:

Example 1 - Layer number now changed

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
  <AddOn.Name>UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme</AddOn.Name>
  <AddOn.Description>UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme scenery</AddOn.Description>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>d:\Users\Mark\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons\UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme</Path>
    <Name>UK2000 Glasgow Xtreme</Name>
    <Layer>146</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

Example 2 - layer number now changed

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
  <AddOn.Name>UK2000 Exeter Xtreme</AddOn.Name>
  <AddOn.Description>UK2000 Exeter Xtreme scenery</AddOn.Description>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>d:\Users\Mark\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons\UK2000 Exeter Xtreme</Path>
    <Name>UK2000 Exeter Xtreme</Name>
    <Layer>144</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

Then reorders the scenery.ini to account for these layer numbers being used in the add-on.xmls, forcing it out of sequence like this:

[General]
Title=Prepar3D Scenery
Description=Prepar3D Scenery Areas Data
Clean_on_Exit=TRUE

[Area.001]
Title=Default Terrain
Local=Scenery\World
Active=TRUE
Required=TRUE
Layer=1

[Area.002]
Title=Default Scenery
Local=Scenery\BASE
Active=TRUE
Required=TRUE
Layer=2

[Area.003]
Title=0000 Base
Local=Scenery\0000
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=3

Truncated for Brevity...
..
..

Point it goes out of sync

[Area.133]
Title=Menorca_Evo_Airport
Local=Ecosystem\aerosoft\Menorca_Airport
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=133

[Area.134]
Title=SIMWINGS_LIB
Local=Ecosystem\aerosoft\SIMWINGS_LIB
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=135

[Area.135]
Title=LFLB - Chambery LLH12
Local=D:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\Addon Scenery\LFLB - Chambery LLH12
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=136

[Area.136]
Title=Digital Design-ULLI v3 P3Dv4
Local=D:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\SimMarket\Digital Design-ULLI v3 P3Dv4\data
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=137

Truncated for brevity.....
..
..

[Area.161]
Title=FTX_EU_ENG_05_SCENERY
Local=Orbx\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_ENG_05_SCENERY
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=176

[Area.162]
Title=FTX_AA_LOWI
Local=Orbx\FTX_EU\FTX_AA_LOWI
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=177

[Area.163]
Title=FTXAA_ORBXLIBS
Local=Orbx\FTX_AU\FTXAA_ORBXLIBS
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=178

Causing a large difference between the numbers at the end. This is causing an issue when installing other add-on scenery which always assumes that the area and layer numbers are still in sync. A second outcome of this is, it's not doing a great job of reordering the .xml layers when it's doing it either, which is what caused those two UK2000 airports to appear half way down the scenery list last time, (original post) this is also breaking those airports and I get the original airport showing through until I correct the scenery.ini again.

Hope this is clear,

Thanks,

Mark.

MarkG · May 15, 2020

I managed to get round this by putting the insertion point in Orbx Central below all of my add-on airports

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resolved Still seems to be a bug in Orbx Central and the scenery.ini

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